The Digital Government Transformation & Why It Matters

Times have quickly changed, and the pressure is falling equally on both government and industry to advance their digital services offerings, creating transparency and accountability to citizens…oh, and also save the world!

Citizen expectations are at an all-time high, and that won’t change. In fact, whether it be protests, the news media, social media, an election, or neighborhood conversations at the coffee shop, the scrutiny and increasing pressure for reliable and actionable digital services will only increase, especially in government.

Governments are considering, planning, and executing strategies on a path to transform their digital services landscape. Some public sector organizations are responding to the challenges, and others are not there yet.

An omnichannel demand continues to explode in government for its citizens. People want to be able to use any device, anywhere at any time. By enhancing multi-channel capabilities, governments can provide services into any channel people want, including mobile, website, phone, and even wearables.

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Why are digital services for the government so important?

The simple answer: it’s now a required technology service that creates exchange, accountability, and transparency for government and citizens.

Without digital services and technologies, governments would literally be thrust back to our parents’ generation with a big gap in truly understanding citizens and what services need to be provided effectively and efficiently. The process of understanding, planning, and making real changes would leap backward by decades.

When the government is engaged with its citizens, external partners, and internally with themselves, everybody wins. This process can create smoother online user experiences, increase public participation and ease the burden on government IT resources. It also creates a loop for private industry to connect into, which is a must-have today from a policy and accountability perspective.

While this new digital age is seeing a deeper understanding of data, climate change, and creating much needed transparency, the real win just might lay in creating better collaboration among government departments. Government is historically notorious for being disconnected internally from department to department.

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Can it really facilitate meaningful change?

Digital services technologies and solutions, when created and deployed properly, have the ability to unify fragmented departments and empower worker collaboration from the same data. Data and information silos that are typically one of the governments' biggest challenges can be eliminated.

Employees across all departments can access, manage, and make decisions based on real-time actionable data. A transparent digital service outcome reduces human error and removes communication bottlenecks.

Just imagine governments facilitating seamless collaboration and satisfied citizens. This can and should be our reality. And you can be part of this!

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